The homage that he demands-in Singapore that it is. Lee Kwan Yew shows again why he and his family rank among the tyrants:
In 1994, Philip Bowring, a contributor to the International Herald Tribune’s op-ed page, agreed as part of an undertaking with the leaders of the government of Singapore that he would not say or imply that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had attained his position through nepotism practiced by his father Lee Kuan Yew. In a February 15, 2010, article, Mr. Bowring nonetheless included these two men in a list of Asian political dynasties, which may have been understood by readers to infer that the younger Mr. Lee did not achieve his position through merit. We wish to state clearly that this inference was not intended. We apologize to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong for any distress or embarrassment caused by any breach of the undertaking and the article.
The fact that it is true-neither man would have their positions save for the fact that they are related to the puppet master himself-would appear to have nothing to do with the issue.
No one should be suprised that the long arm of LKY reaches even into the United States. Nonetheless it is dissapointing-one might have hoped the NYT would have more of a backbone. Then again-the Lee family controls the courts in Singapore, and they are well known for suing the bejesus out of any one who dares to critcize their one party dictatorship state.
Is there any question whatsoever that Singapore, despite having had elections for decades, is authoritarian by Western standards? Or that nepotism and other forms of personal loyalty plays a stronger role in Singapore than in true representative democracies? Or that Lee Kuan Yew played and continues to play an outsized role in Singapore and People’s Action Party politics?
No surprise whatsoever. Look at J.B. Jeyaretnam and what he went through. I suspect that just like with JB, this issue with the Times was personal to LKY-everything is to him. And the Times knew that if they wanted to operate in Singapore-they were going to have to grovel. It is the devil’s bargain that LKY made with the sheep people of Singapore a long time ago. Nice place to live-no freedom of speech or the press. The only real surprise is the kid glove treatment they get from the rest of the world. Money talks.
Note that they also didn’t actually say he was a tyrant, nor that he is an arrogant and whimsical fascist prick, also not that he has corrupted the Singapore legal system, nor that his dynasty owns most of everything so major business deals done in financially opaque Singapore must inevitably involve massive conflict of interests… etc, etc…
Sounds like the same sort of deal the Kennedy’s struck with the MSM in this country. Speak no evil.
No its much worse-even Fox News would be sued out of existence in Singapore.
Ah, I take your point. As the only honest network and the only one that is widely admired for its truthiness, Fox would undoubtedly run into difficulties as it outed the facts on totalitarians of any stripe.
Nice Sarcasm. Truth is nowhere near Fox-maybe they would thrive in Singapore after all.